gibberish

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= Gibberish

Yet another localization library. Maybe with the most agreeable API?

= Usage

It's simple. Your default language, by default, is English (:en).

"Hey there!"[:hey] => "Hey there!"

Gibberish looks in RAILS_ROOT/lang/*.yml for translation files. Say you have RAILS_ROOT/lang/es.yml, right? Gibberish will detect that you know about the :es language and will serve up translations defined in that file if requested to do so.

Here's a real simple example file (it's just "key: translation"):

$ cat lang/es.yml hey: ¡Hey allí!

And, as follows, a real simple example session:

"Hey there!"[:hey] => "Hey there!" Gibberish.current_language => :en Gibberish.current_language = :es => :es "Hey there!"[:hey] => "¡Hey allí!" Gibberish.current_language = nil => nil "Hey there!"[:hey] => "Hey there!"

It even works with simple interpolation:

"Hey, {name}!"[:hey_name, 'Chris']
=> "Hey, Chris!" "{name} is from {place}"[:hey_place, 'Chris', 'the Dreamworld'] => "Chris is from the Dreamworld"

Notice we don't use hashes (#) like normal Ruby interpolation. Also, the names of the variables in the brackets don't really mean much. Interpolation is done in order -- the first argument replaces the first variable in brackets, the second the second, etc.

Interpolation can also be done via hash:

"{name} is from {place}"[:hey_place, { :place => 'Gotham City', :name => 'Batman' }] => "Batman is from Gotham City"

This of course works with your translations:

$ cat lang/es.yml hey: ¡Hey allí! hey_name: ¡Hola {name}!

"Hey, {name}!"[:hey_name, 'Chris']
=> "Hey, Chris!" Gibberish.current_language = :es => :es "Hey, {name}!"[:hey_name, 'Cristóbal']
=> ¡Hola Cristóbal!

Neat. What other methods do we get?

The classic around_filter:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base around_filter :set_language

private def set_language Gibberish.use_language(session[:language]) { yield } end end

For the duration of the block, :es is set as the language of choice. After the block is run everything returns to normal. Rad.

Finally, some checking methods, if you need them:

Gibberish.default_language? => true Gibberish.current_language = :es => :es Gibberish.current_language => :es Gibberish.default_language? => false

Languages are loaded by default at Rails startup. In dev mode, language YAML files are reloaded when modified. No need to reboot the server.

Gibberish.load_languages! => [:es, :fr, :de, :kl] Gibberish.languages => [:es, :fr, :de, :kl]

More as it's needed.

= Warning

By default, Ruby returns nil when a symbol is passed to String's [] method. Some of Rails, it seems, depends on this behavior. Yes, I am changing !!core Ruby behavior!! The humanity!

To deal with this assumption, Gibberish has a reserved_keys array. It, by default, contains :limit (so Rails migrations don't explode on you.) To add to this array, just pass it more keys:

Gibberish.add_reserved_key :another_key => [:limit, :another_key] Gibberish.add_reserved_keys :more, :keys => [:limit, :another_key, :more, :keys]

You've been warned. It really shouldn't affect you, though.

Chris Wanstrath => chris[at]ozmm[dot]org